Venom
by evy29
Summary: Once upon a time Ranma Saotome and Akane Tendo knew each other... sadly it wasn't once upon a time anymore... RanmaAkane If you think this is a crossover, it's not. Keep moving
1. Chapter 1

**DISCLAIMER: **Ranma ½ and all characters related do not belong to me. They are the intellectual property of Rumiko Takahashi.

_People say time heals everything, you know?_

_Like some medicine… _

_But time doesn't heal. _

_It kills._

_Time can make everything fade away as if never existed. _

_The good and the bad… _

_Time can wipe it out and destroy it… like a poison. _

_Time is a poison if you let it be Ranma… and no one is safe from it…_

_No one can beat it. _

_Not even you. _

**VENOM**

**I**

Once upon a time Ranma Saotome wouldn't have thought it twice before calling Akane's name after catching a glimpse of her in the middle of a crowd. Once upon a time the youngest of the Tendo sisters wouldn't have thought it weird if it happened. Because, once upon time Ranma Saotome and Akane Tendo knew each other… sadly, it wasn't once upon a time anymore.

Akane Tendo opened her home's door with a cheery smile on her face; blissfully unaware of the surprise waiting for her at the other side of it. Her expression gave her an uncanny resemblance to her oldest sister.

"Good morning." She politely greeted. A second later the smile vanished from her features as she felt her heart crashing against the floor. Confused, she stared at a pair of blue eyes she hadn't seen in a long time and fervently thought she'll never see again.

"Hey, 'kane." The boy… that was now a man, greeted. He was wearing that same arrogant and somehow honest smile that had always been a unique trait of his. He walked closer to her in earnest, ignoring the way the women's face twisted in confusion.

Akane couldn't find the voice in her throat… for a minute there she actually forgot how to make her mouth work. She stood there in complete shock, wearing the same expression of someone who had just seen a ghost. It was no surprise since a long time ago the man standing in front of her had earned the label of "dead" in her memories.

Having him suddenly there… _him_ looking like the same cocky and childish boy she remembered, except he wasn't a boy anymore. He was an attractive man clad in an elegant suit and wearing a tie. _A tie_.

It definitely wasn't something easy to digest.

Akane Tendo seriously started to doubt her sanity. _It's a figment of my imagination,_ her troubled mind processed.

"May I come in?" asked her hallucination and without waiting for an answer, he, or rather _it _came through the door, lightly touching her shoulder while doing so.

_Hallucinations don't talk, do they? _She wondered while frowning. _Okay, so maybe they do… but they can't move, right? _She shook her head in a vain attempt to think clearly. _And they definitely can't touch._ The girl moved slowly, she closed her door and turned around. Not yet sure if she had imagined the whole thing, or not.

"Whoa! Akane," came a manly voice from inside. "What's that smell? Where you cooking?"

And that did it. _No figment of MY imagination could be such a jerk. _She decided with a deep frown plastered over her forehead as she started to walk towards her visitor.

"Ranma!" she yelled, annoyed; rolling her hands into fists as she felt an old and no longer familiar anger filling her up.

The man walked towards her after hearing her calling. "Hey!" he started with mock excitement. "You DO remember my name."

"What in the _world_ are you doing here!"

Ranma cocked and eyebrow. "I'm glad to see you too Akane." He said with irony and then he turned around, going into the kitchen.

"Now, hold on a second!" the woman followed him.

"You _were _cooking." Ranma confirmed. "It looks like a tornado went through your kitchen." He stated amused while looking at the mess around him and a weird substance boiling over the stove.

"RANMA" the girl drawled dangerously.

"What?" He answered, looking as innocent as he could.

"What are you doing here?"

The man looked uncomfortable for a second, then he stuck his hands into his pockets. "Thought, I'd come by to say hello." He said with a shrug.

Akane couldn't do anything but stare.

"Hey… you got long hair." He pointed while tilting his head in examination of the woman standing in front of him. With no little surprise, Ranma noticed Akane's hair tied in a long braid that pretty much reached her waist. He hadn't seen it when he first walked in.

"_WHAT?" _She asked, baffled.

"I liked it short," he explained almost pouting. "And what are you wearing?" Ranma asked while signalling her outfit. It was for sure something only her oldest sister would wear.

"To say _hello?" _The girl asked not quite believing it and after ignoring his question.

"Yes, to say hi. You know," He said with a wave, trying desperately to get her to drop that subject. "Hey… you kinda look like Kasumi dressed like that."

But Akane wouldn't let it drop. She smiled wearily. "So one day you though '_Oh, I wonder what's up with the Tendos' _and you decided it was a good idea to come by and say hello?"

"Well… yeah. It's been a while."

"A _while_?" Akane shook her head and gave a soft bitter chuckle. _That's so you, Ranma. _She thought a little bit amazed by him.

He just nodded.

"Ranma…" the girl started softly, her features showed no emotion. "It's been ten years… TEN years." She stated calmly.

Ranma fidgeted from his spot. "I know."

"¡No!" she spat, suddenly sounding hurt and angry. "You don't know."

"Akane…"

"Ten years Ranma, without a word. Without news from you… with not knowing…" The girl lowered her head. "..with no goodbye."

The easygoing smile the man had tried to keep since the door opened faded away without leaving traces… he felt the urge to get close and hold her but he didn't dare to do it. "I AM sorry about that." He said subdued.

"And you wanted to say hello?" The girl asked looking at him in the eyes.

Her voice was free of spite. It didn't even waver a little. But Ranma knew she was hurt… he knew he had hurt her.

"Yeah…" He answered with sorrow, starting to regret having thought, the stupid idea of going there ten years too late, wasn't really as stupid.

Akane Tendo nodded slowly. She wiped her hands over her apron trying to get back her composure. Ranma stared curiously at her. The image of his tomboy fiancée trying to control her lion's temper wasn't something he thought he'd live to see. He finally realized time had changed her… and then he regretted not having being there to see how it happened.

The woman took a deep calming breath and then she gave him a bittersweet smile. "Hello Ranma," she said softly.

He was confused for a second and then he understood. "Hello."

Akane Tendo stood proudly and bowed before leaving without looking back. She was sure her visitor knew the way out very well.

**To be continued. **


	2. II

**VENOM**

**II**

If there was something Ranma Saotome dreaded as much as his curse; that something was definitely flying. Living the first years of his life travelling around with no other transportation but his own feet, taught him, or rather made him, value Mother Nature more than most people did.

Airplanes with their distinctive smell and awful lighting always made him miss those days of his life; the days when he had no money and all the time of the world to swim in order to get to China. But since Ranma Saotome was not and would never be fond of his past, the paradox of missing it always got him extremely cranky. The fact that he was in a bad mood _before_ he even got in the plane, didn't help a bit either.

Ranma Saotome was annoyed. For a second there -before boarding- he even thought swimming home was a good idea. He waved it off immediately, of course. He knew his busy agenda didn't allow those little games anymore. Besides, he had his own private jet there, waiting for him only. Not using it would be simply stupid.

"Do you wish something to drink Mister Saotome?" The fly attendant that always flied with him asked nervously as soon as the plane took off.

Ranma shook his head hastily, a deep frown marring his features. It wasn't long before the girl left, virtually running away from him. One of the advantages of his sour mood was that he never had to deal with flirting girls when he didn't feel like it. This one in particular seemed completely terrified of him.

The man sighed wearily. Thank God they'd land in Hong Kong in only a few more minutes. It had been too of a long a day to keep going. Looking through the window with a bitter expression; he asked himself for the fiftieth time what the hell had possessed him when he decided that an impromptu trip to Nerima was a good idea. For the fiftieth time too, he reached the conclusion that it was all Meiling's fault.

Yes, _Meiling's fault. _The woman with her psychological babble, and her mental games, and those sleeping pills she made him take, surely had somehow _made _him had the stupid dream that got him wanting, needing, to see Akane again.

"A morning wasted." He told himself, his frown deepening. He hadn't accomplished anything but feeling like dirt for a while and stirring the bones of a past long time buried. Why in earth he had listened to that woman's advice. He couldn't say.

_She's gonna hear me out_. He thought crossly while glancing at his watch. They were landing soon and Ranma was going to have just the time to make it to his date with the woman.

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Little Touya Tendo arrived home to a very unusual welcoming sound. An eerie silence had replaced the usual racket that always came from the kitchen when he came back from school at this hour.

"I'm home!" He shouted after dropping his bag near the door. When silence was the only reply, the boy frowned. "Mom?" He asked to the air and then went looking for her.

It wasn't long before he found her. He only had to follow the distant sound of crashing followed by the _KYAAAs!_ that came from the Dojo. She was crushing cement blokes with her bare hands. Something, Touya knew, she only did when she was mad about something… and that was a pretty rare occurrence, actually.

"Mom?" The dark haired boy asked cautiously, just before Akane had the chance to break another bloke.

She looked up in surprise. "Touya?" The woman said in confusion at the sight of her eight year old son standing at the door. "Why are you home so early?" She asked worriedly tucking a lose strand of hair from her braid behind her ear.

Touya Tendo frowned watching his mother carefully. She was sweaty, which meant she had been in the Dojo for a while now. Whatever happened that morning had definitely left her with the need of venting. "Mom…It's three o' clock." The dark haired boy tilted his head in confusion. "How long have you been in here?"

Akane was honestly surprised. "Really?" she shook her head, "Well look at that… time really does fly," she commented with a bashful smile.

Her son narrowed his eyes in suspicion, giving her a look.

"What?" The mother asked defensively.

"Are you okay?"

She smiled nervously and waved it off. "Of course I'm okay. Why would you ask?"

Touya cocked and eyebrow signalling at what was left of the slaughtered cement blokes. "Maybe, because you just killed the twenty blokes we were supposed to use in today's lesson, mom."

"Ow." Akane flinched and made a face after hearing her son's answer. "I'm supposed to teach with those today, aren't I?

The boy nodded. "Yep… but don't worry," he said with a wave. "We can do some katas instead. It's just the beginners group."

Akane clicked her tongue. "I guess we'll have to do strength tomorrow then." She looked around and couldn't help but frowning. "Oh boy…" she said pouting, "I'd have to clean this mess before everyone gets here."

The woman shook her head. She shouldn't have let her emotions take the best of her. Still she couldn't help but think her reaction had been, all in all, quite good. It was definitely more of what she could have ever expected from herself. Yes, she was not the volatile girl she had been anymore. But she wasn't made of ice either. And the ghost of Ranma Saotome knocking at her door was not something she could simply ignore… even if she tried.

"Are you SURE you're all right?" Her son asked again, still worried.

She smiled at him gently. She thanked the kamis for giving her such a wonderful son. "Totally," she assured walking towards him. "I just needed some venting," she explained with a shrug. "It was nothing really. But I think I went a little overboard. I didn't even finish making supper."

"Ah… it wasn't a total loss, then." Touya teased with a smile dancing on his lips. His smile didn't waver even after Akane playfully punched him on the head.

-----------------------------------------------

Meiling Ichiro looked up startled when her office's doors burst open without previous notice. Then, she caught a glimpse of the intruder and her surprised expression morphed into an amused smile.

"Mr. Saotome," she said as a greeting. "You're late."

"Really? I didn't notice," was the man's annoyed answer.

The woman smirked. He was in a sour mood, like usual. "How are you Ranma?" She asked, crossing her arms.

"Just _great,_" He answered, sarcasm dripping from his words.

The woman gave him a brilliant smile. "Oh, I'm glad," She said almost beaming. After months of these sessions she knew this was the best way to deal with her "patient." Mr. Saotome's bad mood was a perpetual trait of him. It wouldn't go away no matter what she did… _I might as well get on his nerves too, _she usually thought. _At least this way someone's having fun._

"You might be glad to know, _miss,_" the man started with content fury. "I followed your advice." The counsellor looked intrigued by his announcement. "And ended up in Nerima this morning," he finished seeming mortified and abruptly sitting on a nearby couch.

"Oh?" The woman said, feeling surprised but still pleased by the news. It was definitely a breakthrough. "So how'd it go?" she asked curiously.

"Not at _ALL _bad," was his sarcastic reply.

Meiling cocked an eyebrow, seizing him up. "By your no-broken-bones look, and _assuming_ all I know about this woman is truth," she said calmly. "I'd say it actually went pretty well."

"She threw me out!" he spat angrily, moving his hands around.

Meiling smiled kindly, shrugging. "Well, after ten years you couldn't possibly expect her to give you an open arms welcome," then, she looked at his expression and knew better. "Or did you Mr. Saotome?" she asked amusedly.

"No," the man stuttered. "Of course not."

Meiling's smile morphed into a smirk. "Then, you'd agree with me in that it was not such a bad first step, right?" she asked tilting her head in a weird gesture of modest superiority.

Ranma Saotome stood up immediately. "No," he said confidently. "Definitely, not. Bad, bad step," he declared pacing around. "How am I supposed to make my life better by re-acquaintance this woman if she hates my guts?"

"Simple," Meiling shrugged. "You'll have to change that first."

"And how am I supposed to do that, Meiling?" he asked derisively.

"Using your irresistible charm, of course." The lady retorted getting up; a smirk on her face.

Ranma once again collapsed on the couch. His only answer was a withering stare towards the woman's general direction.

She tried, but couldn't keep herself from laughing. "Ranma, _please,_ I told you it'll be a long process. You knew it would be hard."

"I just don't see how risking myself getting pummelled by going back there it's going to cure that thing you say I have."

"Anxiety, Mr Saotome. That's what you have, _anxiety_."

"Argh… the only thing I had was _insomnia_, miss."

"Yes, _insomnia, _caused by anxiety. That's one symptom no the real pro--."

"Oh, come on! That's a load of sh—"

"Ranma!" the woman bellowed, getting up.

The man crossed his arms over his chest, glowering. "I would've kept the damn insomnia, instead." he muttered, a scowl on his face.

Meiling sighed. Ranma looked remarkably like her spoiled, five-year-old niece after being chastised. "Now, you _know _this is for your own good Mr. Saotome," she affirmed with the same sugary voice she used with her niece in those situations. "You need to get over this stage of your life. I already explain to you that your insomnia and these dreams you've been having; they're all caused by the same thing. Having your past as an unfinished business and hanging above you; is what causes this anxiety that won't let you be. You need closure. To finally get over it."

"Well, that's _exactly_ what I did when I left that place ten years ago." Ranma replied, annoyed. "I just don't _get_ how the hell I'm going to _get over it_ by coming back there."

The woman shook her head. "No, no, no. Ranma what you did ten years ago was _running_ away. You're NOT over it. Not even close. You just left and you thought you could leave everything behind, to simply forget about it."

"With all due respect _Miss Ichiro. _It **_was _**forgotten, until you started with your mental games and your shrink babble."

Meiling gave him a sour smile. "If it had been forgotten, as you say sir, you wouldn't have needed a _shrink _in the first place."

Ranma made a face. "All I had was some trouble sleeping," he muttered again.

Meiling Ichiro watched him curiously. Her weekly sessions with Ranma Saotome were always far from boring. Who could have guessed such a successful business man had such a messy personal life. The owner of the biggest chain of Dojos in China was a unique case. He was definitely something she had never seen before.

"Now, Mister Saotome why don't you tell me everything that happened in this first meet with Akane?" The women asked, putting on her glasses and getting ready to take some notes.

**TO BE CONTINUED**

Thank you for all your reviews. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

This IS a Ranma and Akane fic. I like that couple. But the thing is, they're both different now. They'll have to get to know each other again first, right?

Anyway I don't think this is turning angsty as I first planned so I'm changing the category… Again Thank you for your reviews, and I wouldn't mind a few more at all.

See ya!


	3. III

**Venom**

**III**

He was nervous…

Thirty years old and having her near could still make him shake like a teenager. He still didn't know how he had managed to convince her, but he had. And now she was there sitting in front of him and ready to talk.

He looked at her in awe. She was the same girl he had known so long ago… with the same hazel eyes that stared at him as if from far away; with the same short bluish hair that once upon a time he dared to touch… the same face… and the same old effects this things used to have on him. Why had he thought everything would be different?

"_Ten years don't change a thing," _a hoarse voice whispered inside his head.

"So?" Akane asked coldly, prompting him to start.

Ranma didn't answer. He idly looked around instead. They were in Nerima's old Soda Shop. It all looked exactly as he remembered. Just like it was back in the time when he went there to eat desserts in his cursed form. Just like it was when--

"G' Morning! Ready to order?" a waitress asked, interrupting his thoughts.

"_Yeah, sure…"_

She looked the same too… it was the same girl that took their order years ago… He felt trapped in a deja vú.

"…_just coffee please," _said Akane. Her voice suddenly seemed from far away. The young waitress wrote it down and then she left, smiling. _Just coffee… _ He remembered Akane ordering the same thing the last time they were there… "_Just coffee, please." _Yes, just coffee, because she wanted to leave soon… because she didn't want to be there with him sitting in front of her; because she didn't want to talk, not anymore…

Coffee… yes, just like that Friday, the day when—

"Ranma!" the girl sitting across the table urged suddenly. "What did you want with me?"

"Huh?" Right, he was there with Akane. Ten years later and he was there again. In the same place everything was over as if time had stopped. "I… I wanted to talk…" he answered slowly, unsure. "I need to talk with you."

Akane tilted her head in confusion. "About what?"

The man frowned… _"About what?" _He couldn't remember anymore… but he knew. He knew that—

"Don't we have to finish something?"

Akane, his unchanged Akane, smiled. "I was hoping you'd remember…"

Yes, yes. Something to finish, something to tell her.

"_Ten years don't change a thing," _the hoarse voice repeated. And with the echo of that phrase imbedded in his head, Ranma Saotome woke up from his dream.

His alarm's clock tilting red light marked 2:42 AM. It was Friday morning already, july third, to be precise. With a sigh, Ranma turned over his bead. Lying on his back he stared silently at the cracks on his ceiling's room.

_The same dream again. _He thought with resignation. The dream had become recurrent and much more vivid than before during the last week. It had become more ridiculous too, in Ranma's opinion.

"Ten years don't change a thing." Ranma muttered with disgust. "Yeah, right." He snorted.

Ten years changed _every_ thing. And he had proved it himself a few days ago when -following his subconscious advice and _surely_ under the influence of some temporary insanity- he stood in front the Tendo's door and invited himself to come in.

The dream that somehow _made _him do such a stupid thing haunted him since then. Not even the pills were enough now to help him sleep after he woke up with that phrase imbedded in his mind.

How absurd. How terribly ridiculous.

Yes, ten years later. Ten years _too late_, time had proved Akane right. She had told him long ago that Friday by the river -the day he decided to leave- She had told him and he didn't believe her. Time is a poison… It cures everything. It changes everything. It kills everything.

Ten years don't change a thing.

Ranma Saotome shook his head. They had changed him, hadn't they? There were mornings he stared at himself in the mirror trying to recognize the well dressed man with a stony expression he had become. He wasn't the same anymore. How stupid was to think that time, that had done so much with him, couldn't have changed much the people of his past. How vastly ridiculous that seeing Akane all grown up and wearing an apron, would affect him the way it did. Leaving him with the silly doubt of which one was real. The Akane in his dream, the one he knew, or the composed women that managed to throw him out of her house without being rude.

He sighed.

He was thinking too much.

Yes, Ranma knew it… he was thinking too much. But it's impossible not to do it when your brain forces you.

Ranma Saotome just wanted to forget it all. The same way he did before. He wanted his routine back, his business, his cocktail parties, his interviews, his nights deprived of sleep because of women instead of disturbing dreams. He needed his life back.

He wanted to leave it all behind and his brain had become and enemy that wouldn't let him do it. How do you beat yourself in a battle and not lose?

Ranma glanced at the clock. 2:49 AM.

It would be a very long night.

---------------------------------

Nabiki Tendo didn't believe in destiny.

Just the thought that maybe her life was not under her absolute control was so ridiculous to her that it made her laugh.

No, Nabiki Tendo not only had her life under control… she also controlled the lives of many others. A decade later and she was the only one of the Tendo sisters that had managed to elude change. She was the same as always. She was Nabiki Tendo, the mercenary, the one that always got what she wanted no matter what it was… the one that never gave up.

She wasn't like Kasumi, who didn't even start fighting and threw away from the beginning her dreams of becoming a doctor. No, she was not like her sister who ignored her wishes as if they were nothing but the silly aspirations of a silly selfishgirl. _Yes, selfish. _Nabiki thought mockingly. Because Kasumi thought that everyone's needs were more important than hers. She thought all her sacrifice was expected. She thought she didn't matter that much. And that was why most of her dreams were still dreams with no hope of being fulfilled. That was why her life had become a constant of living through her husband –who _was_ a doctor- and her kids, and her neighbours and once in a while through Akane.

No, Nabiki was not like her sisters: the housewives. Because even though Akane taught at the Dojo and was virtually independent, she was still in essence nothing but a housewife.

Nabiki was not like Akane either. Akane who defeated herself in order to become the little porcelain doll she thought she should be. As if changing, transforming, redefining herself was the best way to heal all the wounds her doomed relationship with Ranma had left her with so long ago.

No, no, no… Nabiki Tendo was a business woman. She was worldly and smart and street-wise. She wasn't cut out to be the loving wife and caring mother most Japanese women were expected to be.

And she had recent proof of it.

The thirty-two-year-old woman could still pass as one of twenty. A new lucky single girl who, that Friday night, had finally take her wedding ring off. She flushed it down the toilet without a second thought, not caring a bit about all the diamonds in it. Now that the divorce was finally official and, as usual, she had gotten all she wanted and needed; Nabiki could relax at last. And she decided to do it resting at the balcony of her brand new apartment with a drink at hand. All the while ignoring the loaded messages her ex was still leaving on her machine.

Nabiki Tendo sipped her Bloddy Mary and snorted loudly. Right, as if hearing that man's taped voice listing and describing the seven hells he wanted her to rot in, would make her giving back the agency.

Ah yeah… The divorce left her completely shattered. The psychological damage was beyond repair… Her husband's profitable sports agency was the only thing that could offer some relief to her broken heart.

She smirked hollowly. It was never to be said that someone had hurt Nabiki Tendo and gotten out with it.

She thought of her sisters again. Yes, she was not like them. For a brief second she wondered if then, they were happy.

_Well… a night drinking can't go by without a stupid question. _Nabiki thought rolling her eyes. She didn't have time to mull over her life and her recent triumph… or failure, whatever. It was pass two in the morning and that meant it was Friday already. In a few hours she'd have to dress up, wear her power suit, her perfect make up and she'd have to go take over her hus--- ex- husband's agency. And then of course, she'd have to start doing what she did best.

Business were her world and money was the force that made it move. There was no room for love and all the other silliness. She'd tried that already. She was definitely not cut out for it.

Taking one last sip from her drink, Nabiki Tendo stood up and walked towards her room. She started planning the day she had ahead of her. She didn't know much about the agency. All she knew was that it dealt with sports and it was some kind of gear provider mostly for gyms, dojos and sport's stores. It was okay. There was nothing in the world of business that she couldn't handle.

**To be continued…**

NOTE: People interested in beta reading please send mail to: Thank you. (since this is a translation from a fic I'm originally writing in Spanish I mostly need help with grammar.)


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